Field Poll: Majority of Californians Favor Legal Weed. OC? Not So Much

A tip of the hat to Michael Goldstein, scribe of the Weekly's Toke of the Town newsletter, for this scrap of good news: According to a recent Field Poll, 54 percent of California voters support legalizing marijuana for recreational use.

Yay! That's a hefty 11 percentage points more than the 43 percent of respondents who don't want pot regulated and taxed as is alcohol, but rather have the profits kept in the pockets of the street dealers and drug cartels.

Not surprisingly, less than half of Orange County voters--just 47 percent--support legalizing recreational pot smoking, while a whopping 66 percent of Bay Area voters say legalize it, don't criticize it.

As Goldstein noted in his newsletter, despite the fact that California voters rejected Proposition 19 in November 2010, which would have legalized recreational weed, the trend since then is clearly moving in favor of the idea. "Back then, just before voters rejected legalization via Proposition 19, only 50 percent of respondents favored legalization," Goldstein wrote. "The poll numbers foreshadowed Prop. 19's rejection, with 54 percent against and 46 percent in favor."

Some other results of the poll: 72 percent of voters support medical marijuana, 58 percent support allowing pot dispensaries to operate, and 67 percent oppose the Obama administration's crackdown on the cannabis industry.

Given the numbers, there's every reason to expect the pro-legalization movement will try to put the issue before the voters, possibly as early as 2014.